I Love to See The Temple

On Sunday I found an 11am ward meeting and took the kids. In all of my careful packing I had completely spaced bringing any of our church stuff. No books, no crayons, nothing. I did have a few toys, so I brought them hoping we could get through sacrament meeting without too much trouble. Apparently that was too much to ask of my travel weary children. They fought and screamed so much I had just about decided to leave church altogether when a really nice sister from the ward caught me as I was getting the kids into the car. She introduced herself and asked if she could help. I was in tears I was so frustrated. She offered to sit outside in the grass with Vincente so I could go in an listen to the meeting. My tears changed to tears of gratitude. She was so sweet. She even got Vincente ready for Primary and helped me find the class. I can’t for the life of me remember her name. I should have written it down somewhere! I felt really loved by Heavenly Father that day. He basically sent me an angel.

After church we went back to the hotel and met up with Meg (Geoff had left already) to have lunch and then head to the temple in Littleton. I had been trying to think of things to do while we were traveling that would help us keep the Sabbath day holy. Church took a good 4 hours, and a trip to see the temple grounds would be another couple of hours, then we could watch a Church video and have dinner and the kids would be ready for bed! It was a perfect plan, and other than the slight hang up at Church (which ended up with a beautiful blessing) Sunday was a perfect day.

It was fun to take Megann to the temple. She didn’t know much about the temples, so before we left I told her a few things and showed her the Church temple website and some pictures of both the inside and outside of the temple. On the drive to the temple I got to talk to her a little more about the temple and share my testimony of the temple. I love going to the temple. Even just being on the grounds feels really special to me. It melts my heart to see my children eagerly looking out the window trying to see the angel Moroni at the top of the temple as we got closer to it. I love that they love the temple so much. It was fun to find a new temple to visit.

There was a family of little bunnies hopping around the temple grounds. The kids got a kick out of that. The bunnies weren’t nearly as fond of the kids as the kids were of the bunnies.

We took some pictures at the temple and then headed back to the hotel and watched The Testaments: Of One Fold and One Shepherd (a movie that always makes me cry and is highly recommended – you can buy it here).

It was actually one of the best Sundays ever.

Jars of Clay

(this is the second in a four part series about our trip to Denver)

Saturday was another adventure filled day. We decided to explore downtown Denver and then meet up for dinner at the Aquarium.  We had heard about the restaurant at the aquarium where you eat with the fish, basically. It was a little pricey, but we thought it might be worth the experience.  Meg and Geoff actually went through the aquarium while I took the kids to the Denver Art Museum’s free day and to a little gelato place on the 16th street mall. I’m pretty sure I took the kids back to the hotel for naps, and then we met up with Meg and Geoff for dinner.

We rode the bus down the 16th street mall, and then walked the rest of the way to the art museum. I was kicking myself for not bringing a stroller with me, but Joss kept up pretty well (on the way there – the way back was a different story). The area was really pretty and we walked through a really neat park with lots of shady trees (thank goodness – because it was kind of warm).

The museum had a fun hands-on area where the kids got to make their own something out of clay. After putting some lace on a piece of clay to make a pretty design, Joss and I ended up with a snake that we textured with the lace. After stabbing his piece of clay repeatedly, Vincente finally ended up with a “waffle” (a flattened piece of clay that he cut in two directions multiple times). We left our clay creations to dry while we looked at the rest of the museum.

There were lots of fun exhibits, including one where you make shapes with your body, and the computer would fill in the holes with a piece of “stained glass” which would shatter when you “let go” of it. I hope the picture helps that make a little more sense. It was really fun. The little kids were having a rough time though because adults and older kids kept standing behind the little ones and blocking them. Eventually I went “mom” on them and asked them all to let the little ones have a chance. The littler ones weren’t as good as it, but they had fun anyway.

There were a lot of places with big building blocks and things to color and dress up clothes. I liked that instead of the “kids” area being just one area of the museum there were several different areas, so I got to see a few cool things as we walked from one place to the next. The kids enjoyed making Jaguar masks and “stealing cheese” (big foam blocks where Vince played with some big kids like mice or rats or something and stole the blocks from each other, calling it their “cheese”).

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a sack lunch on a rooftop of the museum, which reminded me of the numerous trips we made to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and how we ate our sack lunches out by the ocean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the roof there were some fun pieces of art. This one above that Vince is staring intently at is a stage coach or something. I think the firing gun was what fascinated Vincente the most.

You could see the Denver skyline behind Joseline. I think that we were up in the shiny black building the day before when we were visiting Grant.  

Dinner at the aquarium was kind of disappointing. The atmosphere was cheesy, not like the nice restaurant at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the tanks were itsy bitsy and only on one wall, so we didn’t even get to sit next to the fish. The food was all really rich, and not nearly worth the price. But it was fun to experience something new, and the kids got a shark and sting ray from the gift shop. They enjoyed the whole thing. Especially getting their picture taken next to this shark.

Over the Mountain

230.
That’s how many picture I have from our trip to Denver this summer. In trying not to overwhelm you, I am going to split this trip into four different posts:
Day 1 – Over the Mountain
Day 2 – Jars of Clay
Day 3 – I Love to See the Temple
Day 4 – Jiggety Jig
A high school friend of mine and her husband had a job hunting trip in Denver in August. Russ was gone on some military trip or another (I think to Kenya this time), and I had not seen said friend in over a year (basically since her wedding in 2010), so I decided to take the kiddos on a little trip over the mountains and into Denver – just because we deserve a vacation, too!
It was not really my first road trip alone with the kids – when you are an army wife, especially with a husband who travels a lot, you do a lot of things solo. Driving is one of them. It was actually a pretty good trip. Before the trip I had brand spanking new tires put on Russ’ car (which I took instead of the van to save gas) and made sure to buy a new movie for the kids (Rio!). Between the movie, naps, and stopping in Little America for $.50 cones and to play on the playground, the drive wasn’t too bad at all. It felt like we stopped a million times for potty breaks.
We got into Denver on Thursday afternoon and checked in at the hotel. Mostly we just hung around that night at the hotel and ate Wendy’s for dinner in the hotel.
Friday was a big day. We spent the morning hanging around at the hotel, and then around noon we met our friend Grant for lunch in downtown Denver. He was doing an internship for the summer and was spending a few days in Denver in a very, very tall building. We got to go up to his office (on the very top floor!) and see almost all of Denver. Then we got the kids hot dogs at a corner hot dog stand – Vince had been asking for one ever since we got downtown, how could we deny him? Grant and I got sandwiches at a local salad and sandwich joint. The name eludes me right now – but it was definitely tastey. I had a BLT with avocado. Delish. There was a little folk band playing some music in a grassy area just outside the restaurant, so we sat in the shade of a big clock tower, listened to the music, ate food, and caught up. It was really good to see our old friend and catch up.
After our lunch time meet up, we rode the bus back to the parking lot and headed back to the hotel where we met up with Meg and Geoff to drive up to the top of Mt. Evans – a mountain near Denver that is over 14,000 feet tall. Whoa.
The drive was long and the traffic was bad for a little (I think there ended up being an accident along the highway), but the kids were relatively sane for the whole drive. Thankfully Meg and Geoff had rented a Jeep with four wheel drive. It did a pretty good job of getting us up the mountain.
Our first stop was for snacks at a little lake at the base of Mt. Evans. It was a cute little lodge and restaurant. The kids needed to stretch their legs, and everyone needed a potty break. I bought Joseline some new sunglasses because she had been complaining about the sun in her eyes as we climbed the mountains. I think they were pretty stylish.
Back on the road again, driving up the side of that big ‘ol mountain.
 
The next stop was at a little glacier lake farther up the mountains. A herd of mountain goats was grazing nearby and liked to stand in the area between the restrooms. They seemed to be rather unalarmed at the presence of so many humans.  Until Vincente ran past them back to the car when we were getting ready to leave (he was just running because that’s what little boys do – not because he was afraid or anything). The mountain goats took off. Geoff (who had been herding Vincente back to the car) said the goats seemed to give him a “look” as he walked by – as if to say, “Was that thing yours?” Ha ha. Silly goats.

While we were looking at the lake, the goats, and the view, Megann and Geoff wanted a few pictures taken, and I happily obliged. As I was snapping away, playing photographer, Vince came up to me and asked if we could go down to the water. I told him to wait just a minute because I was taking pictures. Well, we finished taking pictures, and we turned around to find Vince. He was nowhere to be seen. After freaking out thinking maybe the mountain goats had eaten him, we looked down toward the water, and there was my little four year old adventurer – high tailing it down to the water’s edge. Not knowing how deep the water was at the edge, I left Joss in Meg and Geoff’s care and took off after Vince. I caught up to him right at the water’s edge where he was happily throwing rocks in the water. Thankfully the water was not deep, just cold. Very cold.
Back on the trip to the summit we started seeing a lot more mountain goats. They were everywhere, and sometimes perched in the most precarious spots.
By this time the kids (mine, not the goats’) were getting pretty bored in the car, and they’d finished their snacks (or crumbled them all over the car – I had to convince Meg and Geoff that rental car companies don’t care if there are crumbs on the seat. They have to vacuum it out anyway. Which is what I love about rental cars and children… because children always make messes in the car). To entertain them for a while they got to take turns taking pictures with the camera. Mostly they took pictures of the inside of the car. Or their shoes.






Other than the subject matter being a little boring (although I have to say I love those shoes of Joseline’s), the photos were pretty clear. I think Vince even got a few of the scenery. At one point we opened the windows for some fresh air but Vince didn’t like the air blowing him so he put up his hands in the window. As if he was going to block the air. Ha!
At last we made it to the top! The lack of oxygen actually felt invigorating to me (although there were lots of signs warning about altitude sickness).








Apparently it was invigorating for Vincente, too, and he hadn’t learned his lesson about running away from Mamae on the side of a very big mountain. He loved all the rocks everywhere at the summit and really wanted to climb all over them. Including the ones that were on the other side of this sign and were basically a cliff. He took off, but this time I was prepared and I grabbed him. Crazy child just about threw himself off the top of a 14,000 foot mountain. Seriously.
I told him we could climb over some rocks on the other side of the summit that were farther away from the edge. That seemed to please him.
I’m pretty sure the kids fell asleep on the way down the mountain, and then we went out to eat at Chili’s. I’m not usually one to eat at a chain restaurant when I am traveling (I must get that from my dad – we like to discover new places. Especially local joints), but we were all tired, and the kids ate, so I won’t complain.

Liberty Legacy

When we were kids, we came up to Utah all the time (for those of you who don’t know how long it takes to drive from Little Rock, AR to Salt Lake City, UT – it takes about 24 hours. Our family made that trek about once a year from about the time I was 8 or 9).

On one such trip, I have the distinct memory of playing in a these little concrete rivers.

I remember having a blast, and I remember it being a Liberty Park, so when Russ and I had some spare time and were in Salt Lake City, we took the kids over to Liberty Park. I couldn’t remember where in the park the rivers were, so we just walked around and eventually found a playground with a water play area. It was newer, and not rivers, but the kids had fun, got wet, and wore themselves out.

A few months later, I was talking to my friend Michelle about going to Liberty Park and she mentioned going to the little rivers. I was so excited! So we packed a lunch and headed to Liberty Park with Michelle and Ethan. It was so nostalgic for me. Lots of memories came rushing back. We were a lot older when we played there, but Vince had a blast (Joseline mostly just sat on the edge of the water and played with the little red boat).

Even Doc had a good time – we tied him to a tree just out of reach of people, but everyone wanted to come say hi. Good thing he is such a sociable dog! He loved the attention, but I know what he really wanted was to go splash around in that water. What dog (or kid) wouldn’t?

 

 

I promise Ethan had a good time, too. He just saw me taking pictures and decided that he would rather stare me down than play while I was trying to take his picture. Punk.

By the way, in order to get to the “Seven Canyons” (apparently the water feature is supposed to be some kind of replica of the Jordan River and its tributaries) you park on the southwest side of the park, just south of the swimming pool. Then follow the sidewalks west (on the North side of the Aviary). Walk northeast past the green houses, then follow the sidewalk north and you’ll see the water fountains on the east side of the sidewalk.

In this screen shot of a google map of the area you can see the swimming pool and the parking lot. The “rivers” are just south of where the “A” marker is.

Who wants to go next summer?

Finally, It Works

If you’re like me, you like to budget.

But if you have a husband like mine, you know that the budget thing has to be really simple, fool-proof, and funds have to be protected. I’m not saying Russ is a frivolous spender, because he isn’t, but his idea of budgeting is “Do we have  money in our account? Okay, then let’s go spend it.”

We have tried every method of budgeting (it seems like it, anyway!).

Don’t believe me? Since we got married we’ve tried:

- a paper spreadsheet printed out each month
- this book, Debt-Free on Any Income (which came with a CD rom of lots of fun spreadsheets)
- The Church’s “One for the Money” book complete with budgets, get-out-of-debt plans, etc.
- Quicken (too complicated, and too many features)
- Budget Map (actually a really cool idea, but it wouldn’t work with one checking account and one spouse who would never write anything down…)
- mvelopes (an online envelope system that really worked for a while, but cost us every month… how’s that for counter productive!)
- Budget (a program from Snowmint CS, which was actually pretty useful, too, but not as “automated” as mvelopes, and since we were moving from mvelopes to this program, it was just too much work).
- Dave Ramsey’s “Deluxe Envelope System” – which would be great if Russ was doing the shopping, but I spend cash way too easily (easier than using my debit card, if you can believe it)

All the trial and error was actually pretty good because we discovered a lot of things about our money habits:
1.) We don’t like to keep track of every single tiny purchase. We are not normally frivolous spenders, we have a pretty good grasp of “need” and “want” and we don’t spend emotionally. We get what we need, and leave what we don’t. We eat whole, natural foods, so we don’t buy crap at the grocery store. We don’t like keeping pieces of paper around, and we don’t like writing stuff down.
2.) I am not good at using cash. Russ is really great at it. If I give him a bunch of cash, he’ll end up with almost as much cash a month later. He seriously doesn’t spend cash. If you give me cash, I’ll spend it all at once instead of rationing. And then I don’t have any more cash, and I can’t get the things we need, because I spent all my cash. I guess I feel like because cash is “untraceable” I can spend it on whatever, instead of on things we actually need.
3.) We like to have all our bills automated.
4.) When we have less money, we spend less money.
5.) I like to plan out every dollar for the month, but Russ likes to have a large “slush” fund (which he usually does not use).

So, after trying every different budgeting method under the sun, we’ve finally found a process we think will work for us:

First, we use my own budget I made up (based off the mvelopes budget that I absolute LOVED). It is just a spreadsheet, but it is crazy powerful and really helps us give every dollar a name. It checks our sums in three different ways, so we can always tell how we need to move things around to make the budget work. In one document, we can do our monthly budget, and budget each paycheck. It’s pretty awesome, if you ask me.

Second, we added a feature to our budget (which isn’t in the one I posted publicly, but I will update it soon) – we’ve color coded the line items. Bills that need to be paid are highlighted in yellow. Bills that have been paid or are pending in the checking account are marked with green. Once the money clears our checking account, we change the color to red. That way, if we’re wondering why there is extra money in our account, we can usually just check the budget. This is a great recording system for us.

Third, we recently added yet another feature to the budget because when our discretionary spending is mixed in the same checking account as our “bills” money, we sometimes end up spending that money.

Remember Russ’ method of “budgeting”? If there’s money in the account, we can spend it! So we decided to open a second checking account for our “discretionary” spending. This is all spending that isn’t programmed, automatic, or regular. Grocery money goes in this account, gas money, spending money, etc (it all goes in there because half the time we are “stealing” money from one category to use in another, which doesn’t bug us, as long as we eat and Russ can get to work). The only drawback to this was that we would probably spend all the money in the account right up front (remember me with the cash? I’m not that much better with the debit card). So instead of putting all the money from each paycheck in there, we set the budget spreadsheet up to calculate all the “descretionary” items each month, and divide that by 30, then multiply by 7, and that is how much money we transfer to the second checking account each Monday for four Mondays.

We’re still working out the math, but the idea behind this system is that we create “artificial scarcity” with our money. We “have” less money, so we spend less money.

It has taken five long years, but we finally have a budget system that is going to work for our family. And it doesn’t involve me spending several hours a day recording bank transactions, balancing checkbooks, and checking online accounts. It should be seamless and only require us to address the budget twice a month before pay day, and any time we need an emergency budget meeting.

Which means more time to hang out with the babies, blog, and live life.

That’s what I’m talking about.

Conversations with a 4 year old

Russ was laying with Vincente tonight at bedtime. Here’s how the conversation went:

Vincente: “Papai, you’re superly awesome.”
Papai: “You’re superly awesome, too.”
…
Papai: “Papai’s going to the other side of the world for a little bit.”
Vincente: “There’s lots of water over there so you can’t go over there.”
Papai: “Papai’s going to fly over the water in an airplane to some more land.”
Vincente: “Oh.”
(Joseline makes a ruckus)
Vincente: “Joseline’s really silly, huh?”
Papai: “Yeah, she’s like Mamãe.”
Vincente: “Yeah, Mamãe’s silly, but a little smart, too.”
Papai: “Like you.”
Vincente: “No. I’m a lot smart. I’m a lot of smart than you. I’m superly smart.”
Papai: “You are superly smart.” (trying to suppress the laughter)

Earlier Vincente and Joseline had been coloring in a Portuguese preschool workbook. Russ mentioned that Vincente doing the workbook pages must have boosted his confidence a little.

Ha. Just a little.

Lightbulbs

I had an epiphany the other day. Let me catch you up on a few things, first.

Things have been crazy here. Sometimes good crazy, sometimes bad crazy. I feel like I’m always writing that on here – my life is crazy. Well, it is.

And I have been struggling a lot with feeling like I am doing a much as possible in the day. Most days I get to bedtime and I wonder where on earth the day went, and how on earth I didn’t get the laundry done, the dishes washed, and the bathrooms spotless. Because I stay home all day, and don’t have any obligations outside of my family, I feel like I should be able to be super mom at home – super spotless house, great meals cooked, clean laundry folded and put away, not to mention spending hours playing with my children, reading to them, and going places with them.

Well, here was my epiphany. There are not that many hours in a day, and when most of them are punctuated by unexpected messes, potty accidents, and children fighting, they seem to get used up a lot faster.

I have always tried not to have too high of expectations for a clean house and home cooked meals because two small, very high energy children (if you know my kids, you know what I mean – touch touch touch touch, fight fight fight, talk talk talk talk talk, sound effects sound effects sound effects… it never ends. Seriously) make doing all that very hard, and I don’t want to spend my children’s entire childhood cleaning the house. I’d rather play with them, and the other stuff can wait. Sure I can teach them to clean with me – but honestly, that doesn’t really get stuff any cleaner because they make a bigger mess than they fix. But like I said, I’d rather do things with them and have a little bit dirty house because “babies don’t keep.”

  Back to my epiphany (that was only part of it) – I went though in my head what my day looks like. I wake up around 5:30 or 6 (on good mornings – i.e., when Russ hasn’t kept me up all night watching TV shows or movies or talking), so that I can have a few hours (usually only one) to myself to prepare for the day – I usually spend this time reading the scriptures and writing on my scripture blog. Then the kids wake up and I feed them breakfast around 7:30 or 8. By 9am I have cleaned up breakfast, and have the kids dressed and ready for the day. Then around noon, we eat lunch, then we read together and I put the kids down for naps around 2pm. By the time Joseline wakes up (and Vincente, if he even napped) we eat dinner, and then it’s time for bed. So, If you look at things this way, the only time I have to do much of anything is in the morning, for about 3 hours. Sure I have nap time, and I do a few things, but I don’t really like to spend my kids’ down time doing things I could do when they are awake, like cleaning. I prefer to do things I can’t do when they are awake – like reading a good book, writing, or taking a quick nap, myself.

Sure, things will change as my children (and our family) grow, but right now this is how it is, and I think that if I can keep realistic expectations – that is, be okay with only having essentially 3 hours in the day to get things done, then I should be fine. In fact, the reason I’ve been doing so much better the past several days is because I have been okay with it, and I’ve been planning my days better to take advantage of those few hours. And I’m much happier.

When I am feeling down for not keeping the house spotless, my dad reminds me of this poem:

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren’t his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

(“Song for a Fifth Child” by Ruth Hulbert Hamilton, Ladies’ Home Journal October 1985)

I Love to See the Temple

This year the Primary is singing “I Love to See the Temple” for the Sacrament Meeting Program.

Vincente didn’t like to sit with his class in Primary. He much preferred to sit with me at the piano (I am the Primary pianist in our Portuguese ward). So one Sunday as I was playing “I Love to See the Temple,” I looked down to see Vincente taking everything out of my bags and stacking things up. I asked him what on earth he was doing.

“I’m building a temple!”

Look – Lightening McQueen is even going to the temple!